Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Card King here right come. Hello, sports fans, sports collectors,
and all hobbyists. Welcome to the car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Catman, Brian Catequit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
m e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for the use and talk
on the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in
(00:34):
this morning on a telephone line. I welcome to the
program a boxing legend. He is a New Jersey boxing
Hall of Famer, and you all know the name. We
welcome in the great Jerry Cooney, Jerry honor to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Don't play me, bro, don't play me like that.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
How you doing, Jerry? Your guy?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Are you guys? I'm doing great. I'm glad to be
on with yours. Have a little difficulties there with these
numbers you sent me, but I'm going to talk if
you want to have to be sure about Mountain stems.
Everything is great. I have a great life. I've been traveling.
I've been in California. I've been training some guy Kingsley
e Day. It was maybe he's going to be fighting
(01:15):
Anthony Joshua, big strong guy, but needs to develop a
little more at this level of the game. But everything
is doing great. Family, I just came from a risk
for kids that I help kids every Saturday teaching boxing
about self esteem and courage and confidence and about learning
(01:37):
how to love themselves. How's right.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's wonderful and.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yead and I also go also go imprisonments and I
speak to the I just came from a fifth of
a month ago, and I sall, look, guys, listen, I'm
just like you. I just didn't kill nobody. I didn't
rob the bank, I didn't hurt nobody, you know. I
just I'm learning how to do this, you know, day
to time, like you. And as long as you continue
(02:05):
to do those things, and if you're coming back to here,
you got to stop doing that, you know what I mean.
So yeah, we have We're very we're afforded a very
great light when we have been in the spotlight for
a while for a minute, and we get to help
other people who were less fortunate.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I love that absolutely A Jerry, do you still think
the popular You know, the boxing is still a popular
sport in twenty twenty five like it was in the seventies, eighties.
Even the fifties and sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Listen, it's a great question. And what happened is that ABC, CBS, NBC,
they went off the air, so all all the kids
would have been fighters in the Olympics and amateur fights.
Put that beyond television. They're not fighting nobody, no, no,
no boxing in America. So it's kind of died down here,
(02:57):
but around the world it's still big and it's sink.
There's nobody really that we can acknowledge here in America
and follow. Back in the day, everybody was from you know,
everybody was from America. The top great fighters were from America.
Today exchanged and so we have to make peace with it.
(03:18):
We got to figure it out, and we're doing that.
Hopefully it's coming on. Boxing's back on Prime TV, which
is as well a better station. And maybe we're just
gonna Bill Hall, Bill Hall, boxing doctor here in America, and.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We're talking with the legendary boxer Jerry Coony Cooney, who's
on the telephone line. Jerry, you know, I was thinking
about this last night on my way to sleep, you know,
nineteen eighty one, nineteen eighty two, in New York City,
the Big Apple, not the New York Mets, nor the
New York Yankees were bigger nor had the spotlight of
the city than you, gentlemen, Jerry Cooney, would you agree
(03:59):
with that?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
You know, thank you so much. It's very nice of
you to say. I remember going out to Dallas to
see good doing it. Ajalon Purcell, here's to sports feed,
and I went out there. I asked him, do you
mind if I walked around the field. I was young then,
and I wanted to see the cheerleaders, and you know,
they made me leave the field because I was disrupting
(04:22):
the game. That's how how big boxing was back in
those days. And we loved it, and we loved the fans.
I still do. I still make a lot of appearances
and go to towns and remember I'm remembered, and I
get to laugh and joke and have fun and tell
the stories, the good ones and the bad, and we're
all better for it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I mean, you know, this is unbelievable. That's a fact.
I mean, the Yankees and Mets were not bigger than
Jerry Cooney from eighty to eighty three.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Say that.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
No, they were bad teams in eighty one to eighty two.
But here's what I mean of how much of an
impact Cooney had, you know, you had in the early eighties.
I mean Hollywood was even compared the Loan a Rocky three.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, let's right, we were on the cover of Time
Life together, you know, one of the Rocky films that
he was doing, and uh, you know it was a
very exciting and frightening time, you know for me.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, Lewis Lewice, the Loan appeared on Time and then
you were on s I by yourself on that during
that Homes fight.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well that was terrible because Larry Holmes was the heavyweight champ.
You know, Larry Holmes and I had great friends today,
and he was a great champion. You know, I'm on
the radio series Exam uh from seven to nine every
Monday and Thursday on Johnd one fifty six, and we
we're broken down the heavyweight division, and you know, Larry
(05:46):
Holmes is like Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, they're
tied for second, Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis. That's how
great he was. But he was angry because you know,
Ali got so much and Holmes grew up in his
camp and he's thinking he was the champ. He was
going to get that attention and he didn't, and he
(06:07):
was angry. But he had a great life. He does,
has a great family with together a lot, and listen,
I was so grateful to get the chance to fight him.
The only thing is that big moment scared me a
little bit. I didn't have really a great upbringing, and
so I got involved with drinking a little bit and
I cut my career short. But being said, I was
(06:30):
in there with the man and we had a great time.
And like you said, the fans have just always been
so great, and there was a racism back then, not
about him, not about me. It was the promoters that
created that to make money.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to make that point
of how big of an impact you had. And you know,
you know, I was watching your bouts, Jerry. Would you
say your first, your first true test came against Dino Dennis, Well,
not really.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I think it was Jimmy Young. You know, Dennis was
a tough guy. He had a great career. He had
a lot of good fights. When I was a young kid,
I was twenty one or something, and the worst thing
he did was he put his finger on my foet
on my cheek and pushed me away. Before the fight.
I was a long, young kid, but you know, when
the bell rangs, I'm going to fight. And I caught
(07:25):
him with a great shot, knocked him cold. But the
big fight for me, I think was Jimmy Young. When
I cut him, he was so looking for a hook.
I didn't win the upper cut and split him between
the eyes and they stopped it in the fourth round
and Jill Planty said, we just have a new superstar.
And that was the start of my career, really, and
(07:46):
I wish I had somebody that it could depend on
to help me understand how big it was. I should
have Maybe no, I understand it now looking back, looking
back on it, but then I was afraid of it,
and so I didn't have someone to help say, you know,
like I go to the at risk kids homes and
(08:07):
I tell him self esteem. They got to build self esteem, courage, strengths,
and then you can do anything. I didn't have that.
I was on my own, and unfortunately I didn't have management,
but looking to make the money, and I had a
great trainer, but he was also busy. So anyway, it's
great living I had. I had great moments. My life
(08:27):
is so rich. I got three great kids, I got
a beautiful band baby. I love my wife more than anything.
And that's all from the pair flight took. You know,
someone told me the other day, who's a guy struggling
with boxing. He used to box with Riddick Bow and
you know gotten Zia Zalars. He used to box with
(08:47):
the via Wett brothers, and he's a little bit punchy.
But he said, you know, Jerry, you're a self made man.
And I never looked at it that way. And he's right.
You know, I made mistakes like we all do. But
I got up, dusted off my pants and went on
with my life. And I feel so good to be
on the radio with you and to be talking about boxing.
(09:09):
How great it was for me. It changed my whole life.
It made me a man. And all the people I've met,
Bob Hole, you know you're talking about stallone, Frank Sinatra
and you name it. I've been with him and I've
loved every minute. You know, one time I was with
somebody said, you know, he couldn't stand back at you
(09:29):
and the great center from the Knicks. I loved him,
I said, so one day he gets up on the
wrong side of the bed and all of a sudden
he's above because he's doesn't feel good that day. And
I helped this guy understand that we're all human. Some
days we struggle, some days we don't. But anyway, I
don't want to drift too far away. But I've done
(09:53):
watching and blessed to be touched by so many people,
and especially I'm saying, the fans and the kids.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And Jerry, I want to ask you
about the load because I had a couple of boxes
on the show, you know, in the past, and they
they said the same things. You know, he's just a
cocky guy, not a nice guy. And I don't know
if you want to get how is your relationship with Slots?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You know, Listen, he was a superstar and he grew apart.
He didn't grow up with the with the gold, gold
tooth in his golds in his mouth. He grew apart.
He made They wanted to put Paul Newman in his place,
and he fought it. So now, I you know, looking
back and rethinking, he's a super He's a great guy.
(10:37):
He's had a great he has a great lives, great family, kids,
He's done so many great things that you know, I
feel God they have not a chance to be with him.
And yeah, you know, listening to the guy who came
and made himself. He wrote the story. They wanted to
give it to somebody else. He fought it and he
(10:58):
and he became Rocky and and you know, Chuck Webber
also benefited from that. And he's a good friend of mine.
I love him too. He's a really a tough man,
the tough life. And he forught and got a shot
at Ali and look what he did with his life.
So yeah, there's a lot of great stories in the
fight game. And Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Webber, they're both two
(11:21):
of them.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Uh yeah, I had Chuck on the show. Yeah that
that that was great as well. But you know the
fight Gooney versus Norton. I mean, here, here's a fight.
I mean Norton fort Ali, right, he fought Foreman Holmes,
the champion.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Uh that was the biggest fight in your career, would
you say. I mean, I know the fight that made
really the homes.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
It was the time at the time I just got
right number one in the world. And the Ken Norton
Beach uh Ken Norton the text Coob and I got
the shot at him and the winner was going to
get Larry Holmes. So yeah, I was in great ship.
I was fighting Mandingo. I'm a young kid. I was
(12:06):
twenty three years old. It was a terrible background. But
when the bell rang, we have to fight, right, and
so he was really not a He was not really
a nice guy to me, and I didn't like that
about him. So when the bell rang and I saw
the opening, I landed with a body shot and he
(12:26):
buckled a little bit. When you're in the fight game
at that level, you say, okay, I'm going to take
thirty seconds and I'm going to open up on this guy.
I put him in the corner. I spun him into
the corner and I caught him fifty four seconds into
the first round. Alcoholed he was sleeping. He was probably
snoring on the rope. He couldn't fall down, and the
ref reason had go one way too long. But then
(12:49):
I got to shot with Larry Holmes, and it's all history.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah. You know what's amazing about you is that you
know even did Jimmy young fight before that battle? You know,
reading your biography or listening to some YouTube clips. They
were saying that you know you were you weren't confident
going into the ring against like Jimmy Young, but then
again you knock him out and the same thing.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah. Let me tell you. So you're in your dressing room,
right and someone knocks on the door and you're thinking,
oh shit, I gotta fight. And then the guy opened
the door says, Poony, you're next. Then you walk down
this empty corridor with's your trainer. It's definitely silence. And
then they opened the doors and you hear the ring,
the roar of the crowd, and as I'm telling you,
(13:36):
I got chills. And that's when you figure it out.
That's when you get up in that ring and you
know what you're gonna do, and you're gonna make adjustments
if you have to, and you're gonna listen to your corner.
But I always knew that I was gonna touch him.
Let him know, you can come to my house. But
when you come in my house, it's what you're gonna get.
And I hit him with a shot and he was
out pulled. He couldn't fall down because he was sitting
(13:58):
on the ropes and the ref free. Every time I
looked to the referee. He was letting me go. So
when you you keep punching and uh four punches from
death in all the papers the next day, and uh yeah,
and I'll say, I think the best fight I ever
fought was En Holmes, obviously, and then he died. Before
that was you mentioned Jimmy Young. He was so great,
(14:19):
he had nine victories before we fought. He was so
hard to get him, he was so looking out for
my hook. I hit him in an upper cut and
split them between the eyes, and that was all she wrote.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I mean, you did, you destroyed his face. I saw
that fight, Jimmy Young. I mean you cut him up badly.
You cut up Dino badly, but nothing like Jimmy Young,
and you knock him out. And then you also fight
Lyle after Jimmy Young once you knocked out on the
first round. I mean, after that Jimmy Young fight, you
(14:50):
were knocking these You were knocking these guys out first
second round, including Ken Norton.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Listen, let me just yeah, let me just take him.
When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna do
this anything. Yeah. Well, listen, you know I was I
was in the zone. I was in the zone. I was.
I had all the fighters that was training at four
forty six times every day in the gym. I was
in the zone. I was focused, I was concentrating. I
(15:16):
wasn't I wasn't I wasn't messing around. This was my life.
I didn't have a life before boxing. Foxing gave me
a life, and so I paid attention. And then when
the fight got so big, when I knocked out Norton,
then there was Holmes, who was the great, one of
the greatest fighters of all time. I kind of got
a little bit on the shore of myself, big mistake.
(15:39):
But they didn't have somebody to help me in the corner,
like a Bill Grant you back in those days, or
somebody who could help me understand who I was becoming.
It was like I was told I was no good affair.
I'm never gonna a mount to anything all my life
growing up, all of a sudden, I'm going down into
a ring of thirty five thousand people in Las Vega.
(16:00):
That fight was shown in one hundred and fifty punds
around the world, and so I got the chance and
I listen. I felt well, as what the best I could.
I rocked him a few times. But he was so good.
He was very smart, uh, and he knew how to fight,
(16:22):
and I didn't have that experience. But that being said,
he was the greatest. I'm glad I got in there
with him, and we're forever friends and we're ever going
to be connected, him and I.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And we're talking with one of the hardest heavyweight punters
of all time, Jerry Cooney is with us. We get
you broke at Jerry. You know, I was looking at
the top ten all time heavyweight punchers and boxing. You
know most of those, most of those boxes on the list,
they were right handed. Something about you, I mean with
that left hook you had. There weren't many, uh, you know,
(16:56):
top heavyweight punchers left handed, so you had that advantage
when your left hook was like a slip shot.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, you know what it was is that when you
throw the left took it from the blind spot. You know,
you can you do have nice right hands and see
it coming, but and you can get out of the
way when you throw a hook. He's in the blind
for those couple of seconds. And so I hooked the
head and hooked to the body. It was great for me.
(17:24):
Bro I love that and I learned it from my
older brother who was a great fighter in his day
but didn't turn pro and nothing like that. And I
got a chance to learn from Victor Valley, who was
a great trainer and had some great spam partners all
through my life. And I'm just blessed. And you know what,
I held on to my money. I knew the rainy
(17:46):
day was coming. I knew there was going to come
a time when it was going to struggle, and so
I saved my money. I didn't spend it in today
have a great life. I'm not a big spender. I
love my life. I have a beautiful home. You know,
I live nice. I go on vacation once a year.
I help people all the time. Every day in my life.
I get there. You know, it's really great. You're walking
(18:08):
at some events, some of them they loved you, and
I sall pull them up and I get on the
phone with them. Those are the great moments I have.
Or there's some of the cherries from the military, the
guys struggling that we can go and and cheer on them,
cheer them up and fight for them, to raise money
for them. That's what we get a chance to do.
(18:28):
And I loved every moment of that bro.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
And you know, Jerry, I have a few minutes left
with you. But you know, what's another thing that's interesting
about you. You know, like after the homes fire, you
take a break and then you come back in eighty
four with vengeance. You always took a little break, but
then came back with vengeance. Like eighty four you knock
out Phil Brown and you're back in full.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Force now, you know. Let me tell you, right, So
when I when I lost the home that night, I
really was once there some mental problems, some struggle with
that and failure, and you know, I was told. You know,
sometimes when you grow up in dysfunctional families, they to
control you. They tell you never gonna mount and you
(19:11):
can't do anything, and you're kind of sets in the
back of your brain and we kind of unless we
do a lot of work, which I've done later in
my life to chase those voices out, you kind of
believe it. And because the parents of the people are
supposed to give you the information. And so I struggled,
and you know, I tell everybody I'm so glad to
(19:32):
be on talk a little bit about it with you.
Get help. There's great books you can go to therapy.
There's you know, you can research those struggles you're going
through and become better. Now. You know, I've been able
to tell my kids the struggle I went through, and
that you know, they don't they don't have their struggle
like I did. Right, So anyway, I don't know, I'm
(19:55):
drifting a little bit. But I love my loved the fighting,
I loved all the people. I love you and I
never even met you yet that's the gift that we have.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
This, this is an honor for me. I mean, you
make in my day. I mean, this is something I'll
never forget. I'm speaking with the great Jerry Cooney. I
mean I watched you as a kid. You know, eighty two,
I was only nine years old. I mean, I'm talking
to you now. It's unbelievable, Jerry. I got a couple
of minutes left. Let me get these two last fights.
In eighty six you fight Eddie. Eighty six, you fight
Eddie greg Now this is another fight which I believe
(20:29):
you didn't have confidence before the match, yet you knock
him out again in the first round.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
No, I did listen. Tommy Gallagher was his manager, and
Tommy Gallagher sends Eddie Greg to slugg out with me.
It was the dumbest thing you could do. I asked him,
I'm not, I said, why would you do that? He said,
I want to be saying as Tommy Gager told me that,
And so he started to christ the guy that night.
But you know, it just turned out good for me.
(20:58):
And then I was saying. I started promoting some fights
and I met. I started promoting George Foreman, and one
day he said, why don't we fight? So I figured
I was sober, I hadn't had a drink in a year,
and I figured, it's nice money. I'm I'm gonna be
able to train sober and I get in shape. We
get in there and fight, and I catch him with
(21:21):
some great shots. He told Johnny Carson and that I
was the strongest punch I ever made him. And yeah,
I told that was the most powerful guy that I've
made him. But and then I got stopped in the
second round. It helped me to turn the page in
my life and get on with my life. And and
it's been a great life. And I I really you know,
(21:42):
I appreciate you and all the people that meet every
on a daily basis and talk to about experience and
help the kids out and the people struggling with life
and and it's beautiful. Bro. So when I get where
are you at, You're in where?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Well, I'm in Connecticut. The station's in southern California, so yes,
that's where I am. So for everyone listening, Jerry, where
can they hear you? Do you have a website? What's
your next appearance? Go for it?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You know I'm on Jerry Cooney on Instagram. I'm on
Serious Exam every Monday every Friday from three to five
out in California and on Channel one fifty six and
it's Randy Jerry Cooney, Randy Gordon at the Fight And
we have a two hour program every day every Monday
every Thursday about all the fights, what's coming up, the
(22:41):
new guys, the old guys, and what's going on tuning in.
We love it. We have a great show. We talk
to a lot of people every show and listen, you
guys are keeping me alive. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Oh this was great. And my last question to you.
You mentioned the Foreman fight. That was that was a
big deal for you. You know you're in the ring
with the great George Foreman. But again I know that fight.
You didn't win, but you you actually you use your
left hook on Foreman. You made him wobble. Was was
Foreman the hardest puncher you ever faced?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah? Well, you know, and my joke would be I
can't remember, but I'm gonna say yes, he was a
great puncher. He was a great puncher. And you know what,
I was just got sold. I was about a year
or sober without drinking. So I was training, cleaning my
body up, and I got in the ring with him,
and you know, we had a good fight. He won
the fight, thank God, and we're good friends. And then
(23:39):
he was on our show all the time. When Muhammad
Ali died, he praised Ali and on our program. And
then he had got sick himself and went out and
quietly passed away, and so loved to George Foreman. May
he rest in peace and his family find peace, and
and we're all better for knowing him. Jerry, that that
(24:00):
burger what was that? What was that? That burger machine?
He had? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The grill, right, the George George for me grill. But
but you met you mentioned Ali? It was this a fact?
Was there talks of a Cootie Ali fight at one time?
There was Oh my god, what happened there?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
But what happened there was that uh was that uh
Muhammad al Amen. He was supposed to fight, was supposed
to fight. He fought. He fought Leon Spinks and lost
Lean Spins, so he was supposed to beat Spins and
then I was going to get the fight up because
he lost the Sphinx. He had to do a rematch
with Sphinx, and that's how I got Larry Holmes. So
(24:42):
it was it just turn rob great. Everything is good.
The fans were great. You know. I'm I'm I'm welcomed
all around wherever I go most of the time. And
I love my life and I love my kids, my
wife and uh listen, we're so blessed to have these
moments in life. I can always yeah, go ahead, I.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Was gonna say no, I'm blessed to speak to you,
so you know this was great.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Well listen, Thank you. Anytime you need me to break
down a fight, call me, let me know what come
on with you, And thank you for having me on today.
And to all your listeners, I love you all, budd Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Thanks Jerry, the one and only Jerry Coody Until next week,
Happy collecting to all
Card King here right come. Hello, sports fans, sports collectors,
and all hobbyists. Welcome to the car King Sports and
Variety Show. I am your host, the Catman, Brian Catequit
aka the car King. We are live on ABC's k
m e T fourteen ninety a m dot com. You're
number one spot right here for the use and talk
on the West Coast. I thank everyone for tuning in
(00:34):
this morning on a telephone line. I welcome to the
program a boxing legend. He is a New Jersey boxing
Hall of Famer, and you all know the name. We
welcome in the great Jerry Cooney, Jerry honor to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Don't play me, bro, don't play me like that.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
How you doing, Jerry? Your guy?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Are you guys? I'm doing great. I'm glad to be
on with yours. Have a little difficulties there with these
numbers you sent me, but I'm going to talk if
you want to have to be sure about Mountain stems.
Everything is great. I have a great life. I've been traveling.
I've been in California. I've been training some guy Kingsley
e Day. It was maybe he's going to be fighting
(01:15):
Anthony Joshua, big strong guy, but needs to develop a
little more at this level of the game. But everything
is doing great. Family, I just came from a risk
for kids that I help kids every Saturday teaching boxing
about self esteem and courage and confidence and about learning
(01:37):
how to love themselves. How's right.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's wonderful and.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yead and I also go also go imprisonments and I
speak to the I just came from a fifth of
a month ago, and I sall, look, guys, listen, I'm
just like you. I just didn't kill nobody. I didn't
rob the bank, I didn't hurt nobody, you know. I
just I'm learning how to do this, you know, day
to time, like you. And as long as you continue
(02:05):
to do those things, and if you're coming back to here,
you got to stop doing that, you know what I mean.
So yeah, we have We're very we're afforded a very
great light when we have been in the spotlight for
a while for a minute, and we get to help
other people who were less fortunate.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I love that absolutely A Jerry, do you still think
the popular You know, the boxing is still a popular
sport in twenty twenty five like it was in the seventies, eighties.
Even the fifties and sixties.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Listen, it's a great question. And what happened is that ABC, CBS, NBC,
they went off the air, so all all the kids
would have been fighters in the Olympics and amateur fights.
Put that beyond television. They're not fighting nobody, no, no,
no boxing in America. So it's kind of died down here,
(02:57):
but around the world it's still big and it's sink.
There's nobody really that we can acknowledge here in America
and follow. Back in the day, everybody was from you know,
everybody was from America. The top great fighters were from America.
Today exchanged and so we have to make peace with it.
(03:18):
We got to figure it out, and we're doing that.
Hopefully it's coming on. Boxing's back on Prime TV, which
is as well a better station. And maybe we're just
gonna Bill Hall, Bill Hall, boxing doctor here in America, and.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
We're talking with the legendary boxer Jerry Coony Cooney, who's
on the telephone line. Jerry, you know, I was thinking
about this last night on my way to sleep, you know,
nineteen eighty one, nineteen eighty two, in New York City,
the Big Apple, not the New York Mets, nor the
New York Yankees were bigger nor had the spotlight of
the city than you, gentlemen, Jerry Cooney, would you agree
(03:59):
with that?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
You know, thank you so much. It's very nice of
you to say. I remember going out to Dallas to
see good doing it. Ajalon Purcell, here's to sports feed,
and I went out there. I asked him, do you
mind if I walked around the field. I was young then,
and I wanted to see the cheerleaders, and you know,
they made me leave the field because I was disrupting
(04:22):
the game. That's how how big boxing was back in
those days. And we loved it, and we loved the fans.
I still do. I still make a lot of appearances
and go to towns and remember I'm remembered, and I
get to laugh and joke and have fun and tell
the stories, the good ones and the bad, and we're
all better for it.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I mean, you know, this is unbelievable. That's a fact.
I mean, the Yankees and Mets were not bigger than
Jerry Cooney from eighty to eighty three.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Say that.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
No, they were bad teams in eighty one to eighty two.
But here's what I mean of how much of an
impact Cooney had, you know, you had in the early eighties.
I mean Hollywood was even compared the Loan a Rocky three.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, let's right, we were on the cover of Time
Life together, you know, one of the Rocky films that
he was doing, and uh, you know it was a
very exciting and frightening time, you know for me.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, Lewis Lewice, the Loan appeared on Time and then
you were on s I by yourself on that during
that Homes fight.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well that was terrible because Larry Holmes was the heavyweight champ.
You know, Larry Holmes and I had great friends today,
and he was a great champion. You know, I'm on
the radio series Exam uh from seven to nine every
Monday and Thursday on Johnd one fifty six, and we
we're broken down the heavyweight division, and you know, Larry
(05:46):
Holmes is like Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, they're
tied for second, Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis. That's how
great he was. But he was angry because you know,
Ali got so much and Holmes grew up in his
camp and he's thinking he was the champ. He was
going to get that attention and he didn't, and he
(06:07):
was angry. But he had a great life. He does,
has a great family with together a lot, and listen,
I was so grateful to get the chance to fight him.
The only thing is that big moment scared me a
little bit. I didn't have really a great upbringing, and
so I got involved with drinking a little bit and
I cut my career short. But being said, I was
(06:30):
in there with the man and we had a great time.
And like you said, the fans have just always been
so great, and there was a racism back then, not
about him, not about me. It was the promoters that
created that to make money.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to make that point
of how big of an impact you had. And you know,
you know, I was watching your bouts, Jerry. Would you
say your first, your first true test came against Dino Dennis, Well,
not really.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I think it was Jimmy Young. You know, Dennis was
a tough guy. He had a great career. He had
a lot of good fights. When I was a young kid,
I was twenty one or something, and the worst thing
he did was he put his finger on my foet
on my cheek and pushed me away. Before the fight.
I was a long, young kid, but you know, when
the bell rangs, I'm going to fight. And I caught
(07:25):
him with a great shot, knocked him cold. But the
big fight for me, I think was Jimmy Young. When
I cut him, he was so looking for a hook.
I didn't win the upper cut and split him between
the eyes and they stopped it in the fourth round
and Jill Planty said, we just have a new superstar.
And that was the start of my career, really, and
(07:46):
I wish I had somebody that it could depend on
to help me understand how big it was. I should
have Maybe no, I understand it now looking back, looking
back on it, but then I was afraid of it,
and so I didn't have someone to help say, you know,
like I go to the at risk kids homes and
(08:07):
I tell him self esteem. They got to build self esteem, courage, strengths,
and then you can do anything. I didn't have that.
I was on my own, and unfortunately I didn't have management,
but looking to make the money, and I had a
great trainer, but he was also busy. So anyway, it's
great living I had. I had great moments. My life
(08:27):
is so rich. I got three great kids, I got
a beautiful band baby. I love my wife more than anything.
And that's all from the pair flight took. You know,
someone told me the other day, who's a guy struggling
with boxing. He used to box with Riddick Bow and
you know gotten Zia Zalars. He used to box with
(08:47):
the via Wett brothers, and he's a little bit punchy.
But he said, you know, Jerry, you're a self made man.
And I never looked at it that way. And he's right.
You know, I made mistakes like we all do. But
I got up, dusted off my pants and went on
with my life. And I feel so good to be
on the radio with you and to be talking about boxing.
(09:09):
How great it was for me. It changed my whole life.
It made me a man. And all the people I've met,
Bob Hole, you know you're talking about stallone, Frank Sinatra
and you name it. I've been with him and I've
loved every minute. You know, one time I was with
somebody said, you know, he couldn't stand back at you
(09:29):
and the great center from the Knicks. I loved him,
I said, so one day he gets up on the
wrong side of the bed and all of a sudden
he's above because he's doesn't feel good that day. And
I helped this guy understand that we're all human. Some
days we struggle, some days we don't. But anyway, I
don't want to drift too far away. But I've done
(09:53):
watching and blessed to be touched by so many people,
and especially I'm saying, the fans and the kids.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And Jerry, I want to ask you
about the load because I had a couple of boxes
on the show, you know, in the past, and they
they said the same things. You know, he's just a
cocky guy, not a nice guy. And I don't know
if you want to get how is your relationship with Slots?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You know, Listen, he was a superstar and he grew apart.
He didn't grow up with the with the gold, gold
tooth in his golds in his mouth. He grew apart.
He made They wanted to put Paul Newman in his place,
and he fought it. So now, I you know, looking
back and rethinking, he's a super He's a great guy.
(10:37):
He's had a great he has a great lives, great family, kids,
He's done so many great things that you know, I
feel God they have not a chance to be with him.
And yeah, you know, listening to the guy who came
and made himself. He wrote the story. They wanted to
give it to somebody else. He fought it and he
(10:58):
and he became Rocky and and you know, Chuck Webber
also benefited from that. And he's a good friend of mine.
I love him too. He's a really a tough man,
the tough life. And he forught and got a shot
at Ali and look what he did with his life.
So yeah, there's a lot of great stories in the
fight game. And Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Webber, they're both two
(11:21):
of them.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Uh yeah, I had Chuck on the show. Yeah that
that that was great as well. But you know the
fight Gooney versus Norton. I mean, here, here's a fight.
I mean Norton fort Ali, right, he fought Foreman Holmes,
the champion.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Uh that was the biggest fight in your career, would
you say. I mean, I know the fight that made
really the homes.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
It was the time at the time I just got
right number one in the world. And the Ken Norton
Beach uh Ken Norton the text Coob and I got
the shot at him and the winner was going to
get Larry Holmes. So yeah, I was in great ship.
I was fighting Mandingo. I'm a young kid. I was
(12:06):
twenty three years old. It was a terrible background. But
when the bell rang, we have to fight, right, and
so he was really not a He was not really
a nice guy to me, and I didn't like that
about him. So when the bell rang and I saw
the opening, I landed with a body shot and he
(12:26):
buckled a little bit. When you're in the fight game
at that level, you say, okay, I'm going to take
thirty seconds and I'm going to open up on this guy.
I put him in the corner. I spun him into
the corner and I caught him fifty four seconds into
the first round. Alcoholed he was sleeping. He was probably
snoring on the rope. He couldn't fall down, and the
ref reason had go one way too long. But then
(12:49):
I got to shot with Larry Holmes, and it's all history.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah. You know what's amazing about you is that you
know even did Jimmy young fight before that battle? You know,
reading your biography or listening to some YouTube clips. They
were saying that you know you were you weren't confident
going into the ring against like Jimmy Young, but then
again you knock him out and the same thing.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah. Let me tell you. So you're in your dressing room,
right and someone knocks on the door and you're thinking,
oh shit, I gotta fight. And then the guy opened
the door says, Poony, you're next. Then you walk down
this empty corridor with's your trainer. It's definitely silence. And
then they opened the doors and you hear the ring,
the roar of the crowd, and as I'm telling you,
(13:36):
I got chills. And that's when you figure it out.
That's when you get up in that ring and you
know what you're gonna do, and you're gonna make adjustments
if you have to, and you're gonna listen to your corner.
But I always knew that I was gonna touch him.
Let him know, you can come to my house. But
when you come in my house, it's what you're gonna get.
And I hit him with a shot and he was
out pulled. He couldn't fall down because he was sitting
(13:58):
on the ropes and the ref free. Every time I
looked to the referee. He was letting me go. So
when you you keep punching and uh four punches from
death in all the papers the next day, and uh yeah,
and I'll say, I think the best fight I ever
fought was En Holmes, obviously, and then he died. Before
that was you mentioned Jimmy Young. He was so great,
(14:19):
he had nine victories before we fought. He was so
hard to get him, he was so looking out for
my hook. I hit him in an upper cut and
split them between the eyes, and that was all she wrote.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I mean, you did, you destroyed his face. I saw
that fight, Jimmy Young. I mean you cut him up badly.
You cut up Dino badly, but nothing like Jimmy Young,
and you knock him out. And then you also fight
Lyle after Jimmy Young once you knocked out on the
first round. I mean, after that Jimmy Young fight, you
(14:50):
were knocking these You were knocking these guys out first
second round, including Ken Norton.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Listen, let me just yeah, let me just take him.
When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna do
this anything. Yeah. Well, listen, you know I was I
was in the zone. I was in the zone. I was.
I had all the fighters that was training at four
forty six times every day in the gym. I was
in the zone. I was focused, I was concentrating. I
(15:16):
wasn't I wasn't I wasn't messing around. This was my life.
I didn't have a life before boxing. Foxing gave me
a life, and so I paid attention. And then when
the fight got so big, when I knocked out Norton,
then there was Holmes, who was the great, one of
the greatest fighters of all time. I kind of got
a little bit on the shore of myself, big mistake.
(15:39):
But they didn't have somebody to help me in the corner,
like a Bill Grant you back in those days, or
somebody who could help me understand who I was becoming.
It was like I was told I was no good affair.
I'm never gonna a mount to anything all my life
growing up, all of a sudden, I'm going down into
a ring of thirty five thousand people in Las Vega.
(16:00):
That fight was shown in one hundred and fifty punds
around the world, and so I got the chance and
I listen. I felt well, as what the best I could.
I rocked him a few times. But he was so good.
He was very smart, uh, and he knew how to fight,
(16:22):
and I didn't have that experience. But that being said,
he was the greatest. I'm glad I got in there
with him, and we're forever friends and we're ever going
to be connected, him and I.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And we're talking with one of the hardest heavyweight punters
of all time, Jerry Cooney is with us. We get
you broke at Jerry. You know, I was looking at
the top ten all time heavyweight punchers and boxing. You
know most of those, most of those boxes on the list,
they were right handed. Something about you, I mean with
that left hook you had. There weren't many, uh, you know,
(16:56):
top heavyweight punchers left handed, so you had that advantage
when your left hook was like a slip shot.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, you know what it was is that when you
throw the left took it from the blind spot. You know,
you can you do have nice right hands and see
it coming, but and you can get out of the
way when you throw a hook. He's in the blind
for those couple of seconds. And so I hooked the
head and hooked to the body. It was great for me.
(17:24):
Bro I love that and I learned it from my
older brother who was a great fighter in his day
but didn't turn pro and nothing like that. And I
got a chance to learn from Victor Valley, who was
a great trainer and had some great spam partners all
through my life. And I'm just blessed. And you know what,
I held on to my money. I knew the rainy
(17:46):
day was coming. I knew there was going to come
a time when it was going to struggle, and so
I saved my money. I didn't spend it in today
have a great life. I'm not a big spender. I
love my life. I have a beautiful home. You know,
I live nice. I go on vacation once a year.
I help people all the time. Every day in my life.
I get there. You know, it's really great. You're walking
(18:08):
at some events, some of them they loved you, and
I sall pull them up and I get on the
phone with them. Those are the great moments I have.
Or there's some of the cherries from the military, the
guys struggling that we can go and and cheer on them,
cheer them up and fight for them, to raise money
for them. That's what we get a chance to do.
(18:28):
And I loved every moment of that bro.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
And you know, Jerry, I have a few minutes left
with you. But you know, what's another thing that's interesting
about you. You know, like after the homes fire, you
take a break and then you come back in eighty
four with vengeance. You always took a little break, but
then came back with vengeance. Like eighty four you knock
out Phil Brown and you're back in full.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Force now, you know. Let me tell you, right, So
when I when I lost the home that night, I
really was once there some mental problems, some struggle with
that and failure, and you know, I was told. You know,
sometimes when you grow up in dysfunctional families, they to
control you. They tell you never gonna mount and you
(19:11):
can't do anything, and you're kind of sets in the
back of your brain and we kind of unless we
do a lot of work, which I've done later in
my life to chase those voices out, you kind of
believe it. And because the parents of the people are
supposed to give you the information. And so I struggled,
and you know, I tell everybody I'm so glad to
(19:32):
be on talk a little bit about it with you.
Get help. There's great books you can go to therapy.
There's you know, you can research those struggles you're going
through and become better. Now. You know, I've been able
to tell my kids the struggle I went through, and
that you know, they don't they don't have their struggle
like I did. Right, So anyway, I don't know, I'm
(19:55):
drifting a little bit. But I love my loved the fighting,
I loved all the people. I love you and I
never even met you yet that's the gift that we have.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
This, this is an honor for me. I mean, you
make in my day. I mean, this is something I'll
never forget. I'm speaking with the great Jerry Cooney. I
mean I watched you as a kid. You know, eighty two,
I was only nine years old. I mean, I'm talking
to you now. It's unbelievable, Jerry. I got a couple
of minutes left. Let me get these two last fights.
In eighty six you fight Eddie. Eighty six, you fight
Eddie greg Now this is another fight which I believe
(20:29):
you didn't have confidence before the match, yet you knock
him out again in the first round.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
No, I did listen. Tommy Gallagher was his manager, and
Tommy Gallagher sends Eddie Greg to slugg out with me.
It was the dumbest thing you could do. I asked him,
I'm not, I said, why would you do that? He said,
I want to be saying as Tommy Gager told me that,
And so he started to christ the guy that night.
But you know, it just turned out good for me.
(20:58):
And then I was saying. I started promoting some fights
and I met. I started promoting George Foreman, and one
day he said, why don't we fight? So I figured
I was sober, I hadn't had a drink in a year,
and I figured, it's nice money. I'm I'm gonna be
able to train sober and I get in shape. We
get in there and fight, and I catch him with
(21:21):
some great shots. He told Johnny Carson and that I
was the strongest punch I ever made him. And yeah,
I told that was the most powerful guy that I've
made him. But and then I got stopped in the
second round. It helped me to turn the page in
my life and get on with my life. And and
it's been a great life. And I I really you know,
(21:42):
I appreciate you and all the people that meet every
on a daily basis and talk to about experience and
help the kids out and the people struggling with life
and and it's beautiful. Bro. So when I get where
are you at, You're in where?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Well, I'm in Connecticut. The station's in southern California, so yes,
that's where I am. So for everyone listening, Jerry, where
can they hear you? Do you have a website? What's
your next appearance? Go for it?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You know I'm on Jerry Cooney on Instagram. I'm on
Serious Exam every Monday every Friday from three to five
out in California and on Channel one fifty six and
it's Randy Jerry Cooney, Randy Gordon at the Fight And
we have a two hour program every day every Monday
every Thursday about all the fights, what's coming up, the
(22:41):
new guys, the old guys, and what's going on tuning in.
We love it. We have a great show. We talk
to a lot of people every show and listen, you
guys are keeping me alive. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Oh this was great. And my last question to you.
You mentioned the Foreman fight. That was that was a
big deal for you. You know you're in the ring
with the great George Foreman. But again I know that fight.
You didn't win, but you you actually you use your
left hook on Foreman. You made him wobble. Was was
Foreman the hardest puncher you ever faced?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah? Well, you know, and my joke would be I
can't remember, but I'm gonna say yes, he was a
great puncher. He was a great puncher. And you know what,
I was just got sold. I was about a year
or sober without drinking. So I was training, cleaning my
body up, and I got in the ring with him,
and you know, we had a good fight. He won
the fight, thank God, and we're good friends. And then
(23:39):
he was on our show all the time. When Muhammad
Ali died, he praised Ali and on our program. And
then he had got sick himself and went out and
quietly passed away, and so loved to George Foreman. May
he rest in peace and his family find peace, and
and we're all better for knowing him. Jerry, that that
(24:00):
burger what was that? What was that? That burger machine?
He had? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
The grill, right, the George George for me grill. But
but you met you mentioned Ali? It was this a fact?
Was there talks of a Cootie Ali fight at one time?
There was Oh my god, what happened there?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
But what happened there was that uh was that uh
Muhammad al Amen. He was supposed to fight, was supposed
to fight. He fought. He fought Leon Spinks and lost
Lean Spins, so he was supposed to beat Spins and
then I was going to get the fight up because
he lost the Sphinx. He had to do a rematch
with Sphinx, and that's how I got Larry Holmes. So
(24:42):
it was it just turn rob great. Everything is good.
The fans were great. You know. I'm I'm I'm welcomed
all around wherever I go most of the time. And
I love my life and I love my kids, my
wife and uh listen, we're so blessed to have these
moments in life. I can always yeah, go ahead, I.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Was gonna say no, I'm blessed to speak to you,
so you know this was great.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Well listen, Thank you. Anytime you need me to break
down a fight, call me, let me know what come
on with you, And thank you for having me on today.
And to all your listeners, I love you all, budd Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Thanks Jerry, the one and only Jerry Coody Until next week,
Happy collecting to all
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